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Refugee
I had the great fortune to attend 14 Vertigo Tour shows over the past 19 months.
Here are my 5 favorites:
5. Oakland 2 - November 9, 2005
- Inside the Ellipse, stood near the back for a change, lots of room to jump around
- Crowd was really pumped up, the Ellipse was already packed during Damien Marley's set
- "IWF"and "Gloria" back-to-back, awesome, totally awesome
- Moving speech by Bono during "One", talking about how the Bay Area "dreamt up the 21st Century"
- "Fast Cars" with Courtney on tambourine
- "Bad" to finish
4. San Jose 2 - April 10, 2005
- Scanned into the Ellipse for the second night in a row, very exciting, ended up in front between Bono and Edge
- Bono was in high spirits, having attended church that morning, much improved over the night before
- Opened with "LAPOE", great mood setter
- "An Cat Dubh", my favorite "Boy" song
- Debut of "OOTS", with Edge on piano
- Bono borrows Bratty Cat's lipstick
- Iris, Iris, Iris! Amazing dancer with Bono during "MW", brought the house down
3. Mexico City 2 - February 16, 2006
- Inside the barrier, between the two B-stages, lots of room to move around
- Awesomely loud crowd in Estadio Azteca, 75,000 screaming U2 fans
- Amazing visuals, we stood in the perfect spot to see the full effects of the giant video screen
- Great crowd singalong to "Cielito Lindo", a traditional folk song
- Show ends with "Fast Cars", "OOTS" and "40"
2. Tokyo 3 - December 4, 2006
- Entered the arena five minutes before everyone else, saw U2 doing their soundcheck ("OOC", with Bono saying "too much echo, lower the echo, please")
- I was in a great mood that night after worrying about the GA situation for three days... ended up on the front rail between Bono and Edge, my favorite spot
- Received a copy of the setlist before the show began
- John Sampson walked over and handed me Bono's guitar pick after Bono had used it out on the B-stage
- Japanese crowd was mental, really really into it
- Funny moment when the crowd sang the "woo oohs" to "Elevation" wrong... Bono tried to correct it, but he just gave up
- Instead of the usual crowd dancer during "MW", three Maiko (apprentice geishas) shuffled across the stage as Bono bowed to them
- They nailed "WITS"
- "Vertigo" to end, crowd went ballistic
1. Las Vegas 2 - November 5, 2005
- No Ellipse, but 8th row on Adam's side
- First chance to see the cool visuals
- Smallest arena of the tour, very intimate setting
- Brandon Flowers and Mary J. Blige as surprise guests
- Crowd sings Happy Birthday for Dennis Sheehan
- Hard rockin' setlist, no acoustic stuff
- Ended with "Bad", segueing into "People Got The Power" as they left the stage while the crowd kept singing
Here are my 5 favorites:
5. Oakland 2 - November 9, 2005
- Inside the Ellipse, stood near the back for a change, lots of room to jump around
- Crowd was really pumped up, the Ellipse was already packed during Damien Marley's set
- "IWF"and "Gloria" back-to-back, awesome, totally awesome
- Moving speech by Bono during "One", talking about how the Bay Area "dreamt up the 21st Century"
- "Fast Cars" with Courtney on tambourine
- "Bad" to finish
4. San Jose 2 - April 10, 2005
- Scanned into the Ellipse for the second night in a row, very exciting, ended up in front between Bono and Edge
- Bono was in high spirits, having attended church that morning, much improved over the night before
- Opened with "LAPOE", great mood setter
- "An Cat Dubh", my favorite "Boy" song
- Debut of "OOTS", with Edge on piano
- Bono borrows Bratty Cat's lipstick
- Iris, Iris, Iris! Amazing dancer with Bono during "MW", brought the house down
3. Mexico City 2 - February 16, 2006
- Inside the barrier, between the two B-stages, lots of room to move around
- Awesomely loud crowd in Estadio Azteca, 75,000 screaming U2 fans
- Amazing visuals, we stood in the perfect spot to see the full effects of the giant video screen
- Great crowd singalong to "Cielito Lindo", a traditional folk song
- Show ends with "Fast Cars", "OOTS" and "40"
2. Tokyo 3 - December 4, 2006
- Entered the arena five minutes before everyone else, saw U2 doing their soundcheck ("OOC", with Bono saying "too much echo, lower the echo, please")
- I was in a great mood that night after worrying about the GA situation for three days... ended up on the front rail between Bono and Edge, my favorite spot
- Received a copy of the setlist before the show began
- John Sampson walked over and handed me Bono's guitar pick after Bono had used it out on the B-stage
- Japanese crowd was mental, really really into it
- Funny moment when the crowd sang the "woo oohs" to "Elevation" wrong... Bono tried to correct it, but he just gave up
- Instead of the usual crowd dancer during "MW", three Maiko (apprentice geishas) shuffled across the stage as Bono bowed to them
- They nailed "WITS"
- "Vertigo" to end, crowd went ballistic
1. Las Vegas 2 - November 5, 2005
- No Ellipse, but 8th row on Adam's side
- First chance to see the cool visuals
- Smallest arena of the tour, very intimate setting
- Brandon Flowers and Mary J. Blige as surprise guests
- Crowd sings Happy Birthday for Dennis Sheehan
- Hard rockin' setlist, no acoustic stuff
- Ended with "Bad", segueing into "People Got The Power" as they left the stage while the crowd kept singing
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